Kenya’s ICC Intercontinental Cup match against Uganda, which was to be held in Uganda, will now be played in Nairobi instead, according to a report in , a Kenyan newspaper. With the match less than a month away, an unsuitable pitch brought about the change in venue.Matthew Kennedy, ICC’s global development manager, said, “After due consideration by an ICC inspection and investigation team regarding the status of the newly-laid turf ground in Kampala, Uganda, the ICC decided it was appropriate to move the match to an alternative venue.” He added that the decision was agreed to by the boards of both countries.This African league fixture of the Intercontinental Cup will take place from July 23-25 at the Nairobi Gymkhana. The winners of the league will play toppers from other continents in the semi-finals in Sharjah.

Muttiah Muralitharan will return to Test cricket on Wednesday with the chance to become the highest wicket-taker in the world – for the second time this year. But Murali, who will not be bowling his doosra, insists he will be chasing wickets rather than records.Muralitharan’s decision to boycott Sri Lanka’s two-Test tour of Australia in July allowed Shane Warne to draw level with him on 527 wickets. But during the forthcoming series against South Africa, on what are expected to be two spin-friendly pitches, Muralitharan has the opportunity to open up the gap again, while Warne is playing county cricket with Hampshire.Muralitharan, however, claims to be completely disinterested now by the world record and the resultant media hype over his rivalry with Warne. Instead, he insists, his No. 1 priority now is taking wickets to help Sri Lanka win matches.”I am not thinking about the record any more,” Muralitharan told reporters after the Sri Lanka team practice this morning. “The main achievement was passing Courtney Walsh’s 519-wicket record, and now I want to concentrate on winning this match. As we [Murali and Warne] are both going to be playing for a long time, there is no interest at all in us passing each other every other match.”Galle, where the first Test is to be played, has been a happy hunting ground for Muralitharan over the years. When these sides last met here, in 2000, he ripped through South Africa’s batting in both innings to claim 13 for 171. In all, he has snapped up 80 wickets at 15.10 in only ten Tests at Galle.South Africa, like all teams that tour Sri Lanka, has been feverishly working on their laptops trying to unravel some of Murali’s mystery. “We have done our homework and watched a lot of video tapes,” Graeme Smith told reporters. “We have spoken to some guys who have done well against him over the years. Our record against him is pretty decent, but playing Murali here and facing him in South Africa are two completely different things.”Their job has been made considerably easier by Murali’s decision, after advice from the Sri Lanka board which was also endorsed by the ICC, to shelve the doosra at least until November. South Africa may seek confirmation from Clive Lloyd, the match referee, that they will not be confronted by the mystery ball. “We have been told that he won’t be bowling his doosra,” said Eric Simons, the coach. “We have a match-referee meeting tonight, and I suppose it might come up in that. As far as we are concerned, the doosra has been removed from his repertoire.”

Kenya’s disgraced former captain, Maurice Odumbe, who was yesterday banned for five years after accepting bribes from an Indian bookmaker, has vowed to appeal against his suspension.Odumbe, who was found guilty on 12 charges of corruption by the former Zimbabwean Supreme Court judge, Ahmed Ebrahim, declared that he was “shocked and surprised” by the decision.”We shall fight this, we shall fight it to the end,” said Odumbe’s lawyer, Ishan Kapila, at a press conference in Nairobi. But Odumbe faces a tough battle if he is to clear his name. ICC, which has received a copy of the Ebrahim Report, described the decision as “entirely appropriate”, and Kenya will now have to find a replacement for their Champions Trophy squad.Odumbe has at least received support from his captain, Steve Tikolo, who called the Kenya Cricket Association’s decision “unfair”, adding that the news had affected the morale of the team. “I have known Odumbe for a long time and he always gives 100 percent in his appearances,” said Tikolo. “He has been an integral part of this team and his absence will affect our performance in the future.”Odumbe played in 61 one-day internationals, and captained Kenya to a famous victory over West Indies at Pune in 1996. He won a Man-of-the-Match award in three consecutive World Cups, most recently against Bangladesh at Johannesburg in 2003, when his unbeaten 52 and a four-wicket haul carried Kenya towards the semi-finals.

Lancashire 350 for 8 (Law 159, Bichel 3-56) v Worcestershire
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Stuart Law cracked a superb 159 on the opening day of the penultimate round of County Championship matches, as Lancashire launched their survival bid with a spirited performance against Worcestershire at New Road. His efforts were backed up by a pair of half-centuries from Iain Sutcliffe and Glen Chapple, although Andy Bichel hit back with three vital wickets for Worcestershire, who themselves are in need of as many points as they can muster, given that they currently occupy the third relegation spot.Until Bichel returned for his final spell of the day, the honours belonged to Lancashire. But then Law and Dominic Cork were prised out in quick succession to leave Lancashire gasping for the last batting point on what is a good pitch. Law’s late dismissal, six overs before the close, was initially announced as caught behind, before being amended to lbw ten minutes later. His unhappiness was plain: head bowed, with feet shuffling turgidly, he was almost unaware of his ovation. For exactly five hours he had looked a class apart. Assertive throughout against Worcestershire’s four-nations bowling attack, he crunched 24 fours and a six, mainly through cover.His innings has already had a strong impact on this first-division basement battle, although aside from the prestige factor, it is unclear quite how damaging relegation will prove to be. Admittedly the prizemoney for winners and runners-up varies, but the ECB handout does not. Nor has Duncan Fletcher shown a marked partiality to top-division players. And this year the second-division teams have attracted some of the world’s leading lights, in the form of Ricky Ponting, Andy Flower and Shane Warne.After winning the toss under clear skies, Lancashire started weakly. Mark Chilton’s off stump was plucked out by Bichel to leave them 5 for 1, and Mal Loye was dropped in the gully on 8 shortly afterwards. Meanwhile Sutcliffe was in scratchy form, and Worcestershire were in command. The heat persuaded their captain, Steve Rhodes, to use his quicker bowlers in short spells, and when Matt Mason returned to the attack, he wangled a fatal waft from Loye. That brought Law to the crease in hot sunshine and, like the ice-cream van to the north side of ground, both were immovable until the dying overs.The dry, slightly mottled wicket, with balding strips of brown grass, warranted the early introduction of Ray Price, who spun through eight tidy overs before lunch. The break gave Sutcliffe a touch of fluency before Rhodes gleefully stumped him in the same over that he reached 50. Worcestershire’s decision to include a second spinner – Shaftab Khalid ahead of Nadeem Malik – may yet prove crucial.Carl Hooper never looked at ease before he fell lbw to Andrew Hall, and the pressure was piled onto Law. He was aided for a time by the debutant, Andrew Crook, who appeared casual and confident after his exploits in the 2nd XI, but he eventually played back to Khalid and was caught behind for 27. Law found a redoubtable ally in Chapple, and together they added 108. Chapple used his feet well to counter the turn and exhibited a useful array of strokes, only to fall in the final hour, trying to hit the ball over extra cover. Then Bichel returned, and Worcestershire inched back into the ascendancy.Deb Biswas is a freelance writer with the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

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Gujarat overcame several hiccoughs to scraped to a narrow win against Bengal at Siliguri. Chasing a tricky target of 217, Gujarat were off to a confident start with Akash Christian and Niraj Patel stroking half-centuries and taking them to 154 for 1. But Ranadeb Bose, the medium-pacer, wrecked havoc with the middle order, and Gujarat lost the next seven wickets for just 60 before getting home.
ScorecardNilesh Kulkarni finished with a rich second-innings harvest of 7 for 60 as Mumbai thumped Andhra Pradesh by an innings and 121 runs at the Wankhede Stadium. The innings victory gave Mumbai a bonus point, and helped them leap to the top of the table. The silver lining for AP was the plucky knocks by Amit Pathank (88) and Gnaneswara Rao (96 not out). But their woeful display in the first innings meant that AP were crushed by a massive margin.
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After taking just four wickets yesterday, Karnataka were in danger of frittering away the advantage of a massive first-innings lead. But their bowlers managed to break through at Bangalore this morning to gain two crucial points. They carried on the good work in MP’s second innings, but a fighting half-century by Sachin Dholpure, who had made a century the first innings, defied them for nearly three hours as MP clung on for a draw.
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Rajat Bhatia made a patient 157 as the game between Delhi and Railways at the Jamia Millia Ground petered into a draw. Shikar Dhawan, India’s hero in the Under-19 World Cup held in Bangladesh earlier in 2004, ground out 87 while the wicketkeeper, Varun Kumar, scored 54. Bhatia cracked 12 fours and two sixes in his knock as the game meandered to a tame draw.
ScorecardAmit Uniyal, the medium pacer, snapped up a four-wicket haul as Punjab sealed a 110-run win over Baroda at Mohali. Chasing 391, Baroda built a solid launching pad and at one stage were 110 for 2. But they lost wickets at regular intervals from then and despite a fighting 69 from Rakesh Patel at No.9, they were bowled out for 280. Earlier in the day, Pankaj Dharmani and Ankur Kakkar added 184 for the fifth wicket and helped Punjab extend their lead to 390.Uttar Pradesh 132 and 163 for 2 (Raina 89*, Yadav 51) beat Assam 184 and 107 by 8 wickets
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Uttar Pradesh completed an 8-wicket win over Assam at the Kamla Club ground in Kanpur. They began the day on 77 for 1 needing a further 83 runs to secure victory. In the end Suresh Raina ensured that there were no hiccoughs. He scored and undefeated 89 with 15 fours and 1 six off 11 balls in the company of Jyoti P Yadav (61) to steer Uttar Pradesh to a comfortable win.Hyderabad 231 and 170 (Sanclecha 5-46) beat Maharashtra 83 and 233 (Jadhav 124, Singh 6-87) by 85 runs
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Hyderabad clinched an 85-run win against Maharashtra inside three days. After they were skittled out for just 83 in the first innings Maharashtra struggled to catch up. A fighting 124 by Dheeraj Jadhav, the left-handed opening batsman, delayed the inevitable, but was not enough to stave off defeat. Narender Pal Singh, the medium-pacer, was the most effective bowler claiming 6 for 87.

Jeff Wilson has been included in New Zealand’s team for the first game of the three-match series against the FICA World XI to be played at the Jade Stadium in Christchurch tomorrow. Wilson will make his first appearance for the national team in 12 years while Craig McMillan, who joined the squad after Jacob Oram was withdrawn from the first match because of a back strain, was named as the 12th man.The rest of the team was on expected lines with two specialist medium pacers in Daryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills and a powerful batting line-up backing them up.The three matches will be played on January 22, 24 and 26, and proceeds from the games will go towards providing relief to the victims of the tsunami disaster which hit south Asia on December 26.New Zealand
1 Stephen Fleming (capt), 2 Nathan Astle, 3 Mathew Sinclair, 4 Hamish Marshall, 5 Scott Styris, 6 Chris Cairns, 7 Brendon McCullum, 8 Daniel Vettori, 9 Jeff Wilson, 10 Kyle Mills, 11 Daryl Tuffey.

ScorecardGaurav Dhiman, the Karnataka allrounder, caught the eye as India Under-19s eased to a comfortable 46-run victory over England, in the first one-day international at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College Stadium in Agartala. Dhiman blazed his way to 43 off just 30 balls as the Indians piled up 299 for 9, and then dismissed both openers as the English challenge faltered in the first 20 overs.With M Tewari also smashing 46 from 37 balls, the India Under-19s didn’t lack momentum. Mayank Tehlan provided the solidity with a dogged 84-ball 51, and there were contributions right down the order, with Piyush Chawla thwacking three sixes in his 32 from 17 balls. Mark Lawson’s legbreaks fetched him 2 for 46, and although David Griffiths took two wickets they cost him 48 from four overs.In response, the English side slumped to 81 for 6, not helped by two early run-outs. Moeen Ali (57) and Tom Smith (56) spared them an absolute hiding by striking half-centuries, but the result was never in doubt, and the Indians wrapped it up with 20 balls to spare. Dhiman finished with 2 for 58, while Kuldip Sharma (2 for 20) and Andimani Pradeep, the offspinner from Andhra Pradesh (2 for 45), were also among the wickets.

Andrew Leipus, who was replaced by John Gloster as the Indian team’s physio in February, has yet to be paid for the last five months of his tenure with the Indian team. Since his contract was worth US$50-60,000, the money owed to him is US$21-25,000. This revelation, by the , is the latest in a series of blows to the BCCI’s reputation in matters of finance.SK Nair, the secretary of the board, parried the issue to Jyoti Bajbai, the treasurer. “I distinctly remember that two weeks back I had cleared the payment,” said Nair. “The treasurer’s office usualy transfers the amount from the bank account in Kanpur to Andrew’s bank. We usually pay him in three instalments because of the RBI regulations.”Maybe,” Nair added, “the money is in transit.”Bajpai admitted that there had been a delay and said he was yet unclear about the payment. “I will have to check up. I am not quite sure about the payment. But, yes, there has been a delay.”The same newspaper stated that John Wright, who looks set to end his tenure as coach after Pakistan’s tour, remained unpaid for seven months last year, that the Indian team was yet to receive the Rs50lakh (approx. US$114,000) bonus they were awarded by the board after the series win in Pakistan, and that the first of the graded payments were still to be made to the team.

One of South Africa’s most controversial batsmen signed off from first-class cricket on Sunday. Daryll Cullinan, Titans’ captain, finished his career with a first-innings hundred which helped to ensure that Western Province-Boland would not qualify to defend their SuperSport title in the final later this week.Cullinan, who turned 38 last week, told the Cape Argus that while he was still hitting the ball as well as ever, he knew he had made the right decision to retire. “My eyes and hands are good and if I wanted to go on I could," he explained. "But the game has changed, and now is the time to move on."Cullinan made 70 Test appearances for South Africa, scoring 4554 runs at 44.21 as well as winning 138 ODI caps. He will now concentrate on his work as a television commentator and also his coaching centre in Johannesburg.